News

Duma Speaker Wants Ban on Foreign Adoptions

(December 22, 2008)

A court case in Virginia that ended in a not guilty verdict for a man
accused of killing his adopted Russian child prompted the speaker of
the Russian parliament to call for restrictions on adoptions by
foreigners, according to a December 18, 2008 report by UCSJ's Moscow
bureau. Boris Gryzlov commented on the acquittal of the Virginia man,
who left his adopted child in a car on a hot day, by employing
pseudo-scientific, almost racist language. "Russian children shoud
stay in Russia, this topic should worry us," the speaker said. "Why
do foreigners adopt them? Because they genetically are heathier, more
clever etc. than in the other countries."

Russia has a major problem with abandoned children, many of whom live
in appalling conditions of neglect.